“This just was not OK with them,” Morgan said. “They didn’t like the fact that people who have this disease can’t take medicine or have surgery to get better.”

SMA is caused by the lack of a gene that produces a protein necessary for muscle movement and growth. It is the number one genetic killer of children under 2 years old, affecting one in every 6,000 newborns. Children with SMA cannot roll over, sit, stand or walk and usually have trouble swallowing.

While researching SMA, Morgan’s class found the Miller McNeil Woodruff Foundation. They watched a short video about a baby, Miller, who lived for only 87 days because of SMA.

“Some cried, and some turned away but mostly, they asked questions about Miller and SMA and why there was no cure,” Morgan said. “I told them that there is research being done to help find a cure but that there just isn’t one yet, because of a lack of funding to help.”

This sparked ideas. The class decided to do a fundraiser and donate the money to the foundation.

“At first, I was a little skeptical because I didn’t want them to be disappointed if we didn’t raise but a few dollars,” Morgan said. “To my surprise, when I asked them to come up with a plan to raise money in our classroom, they had fantastic ideas.”

Morgan set a goal of $50 for the class. Within the week, they had surpassed that goal.

“After that, I think it just kind of became something they were proud of themselves for doing,” Morgan said. “They were working hard and they were making a difference.”

Morgan wrote to Miller’s mother explaining what her class was doing and in return, she sent Morgan’s class tiny bracelets from the foundation, said Kristie Clanton, a mother of a student in the class.

The students wanted to push their fundraiser further and soon the entire school was helping to raise money for the Miller McNeil Woodruff Foundation. They set a school-wide goal of $300.

On the first collection day and after counting up several bags of change, they had surpassed their goal with a total of $590.48. After that, they received an anonymous challenge from someone in the community who said if $900 was raised by April 26, they would donate the remaining $100 so the total donation would be $1,000.

“On April 26, our last collection day, my students went around to every class and collected their bags,” Morgan said. “They came back to the classroom with bags bursting at the seams. People had sent in checks, $20 bills, bags of pennies and rolls of quarters.”

The students counted up all the money – the school had raised $1,015.75 and was able to donate it all to the Miller McNeil Woodruff Foundation.

“The class has become very passionate about this and they have worked very hard for the foundation,” Clanton said.